My name is Sue Himmelrich. I live at 337 14th Street in Santa Monica. Come and take what you want from my house – just do not hurt any of us.
The truth is, there isn’t much to take from us, or, I’m guessing, any of us in Santa Monica. It cost us so much to buy our houses that we don’t have cash or diamonds. We have our children, our parents, our family. All we care about is that none of us get hurt.
You want my car (a 2013 Volt) take it. You want my husband’s car (a 2009 Honda Civic CNG) take it. But the truth is, you could take my Tesla or my Mercedes or my Ferrari if I had them. Just do not hurt us.
The home invasion robbery on 19th Street in my admittedly affluent neighborhood was an abomination. The victims speak of offering the invaders whatever they wanted. Who wouldn’t? Stuff vs. people: this is easy for those of us who have stuff.
But I can rant forever about the haves and the have-nots, how I, a confessed “have,” believe that those of us who have so much should rail against the ever-widening gap. And I will continue my rant but not here.
Here I want to say that all of us need to be smarter. For those who target our city, I caution: we are a small town with a powerful police force and city attorney who will hunt you and take you down. For those of us who live here, I look forward to strengthening our defenses and joining as a community to create a collaborative and effective strategy to defeat those who would victimize us.
I ran for City Council because I believe we can do better. To me, whether you are for or against development, for or against affordable housing, for or against how much our employees are paid, one issue is obvious: we should join together to be Jane Jacobs’ “eyes on the street”. Let’s come out of our apartments, out of our walled and hedged privacy. If we can create a village in our neighborhoods and in our city, we will win the war.
Sue Himmelrich
Santa Monica Councilwoman
